Source:Fleming-first-growth/content
SOME further consideration of the first plans of Pittsburgh is necessary in order to trace the growth of the town. Special attention must be given to the rugged topography of the place. This will be noted fully.
It is evident that the surveyors had their troubles, as Thomas Vickroy recounts in his deposition made in 1841. Today even, comment is made upon the poor planning of the original town. Vickroy explains why some streets were made narrow and others of uniform width throughout the plan. Wood's [sic] and Vickroy's plan of Pittsburgh, it may be stated, was acceptable to the proprietaries of Penn's Manor ot Pittsburgh—the Penn heirs and their agent, Tench Francis. The surveyors laid out the town in lots, streets and alleys. On the face of the plat, the lots were all numbered, the size of each stated, the width of the alleys given and the width of all the streets, except Water street.
On one side of that street were the lots commencing at the junction of the rivers and extending up to Grant street. Water street was left a roadway, irregular in width and buildings, between the roadway and the river.
At Ferry street this roadway was fewer than 50 feet in width. It was about the same at Market street. At Redoubt alley, now called Blockhouse way, it was about 20 feet in width, becoming narrower as it approached the Point. This ill-conditioned roadway became Water street. Its high banks and irregular outline did not prevent its becoming a busy thoroughfare, and in the early days of Pittsburgh borough the principal residence street, while the business houses grew along Market street. The growth along the adjacent street will be reverted to today and some idea given of the sparsely settled village previous to 1800, or shortly after it was granted a borough form of government.
There was a slow growth. The town was a frontier town, long distances intervened between us and the civilization and manufactures of the East. The nation was new. The Indian troubles were long continued. There was never a boom here.
January 9, 1796, the Pittsburgh Gazette printed a paragraph, stating that "the number of inhabitants in the borough of Pittsburgh, as taken by the assessors last week, amounts to 1,395."
Neville B. Craig comments on this statement and states that it is the earliest authentic account of Pittsburgh's population and that it is well to notice the condition of this place and its appearance at that time. He assumes six persons as an average to each house and this will give 232 houses in the town. His own memory, he continues, "goes back pretty distinctly to that time" and he can not conceive where that number of houses could then be found. He says:
"I have tasked my own memory severely, and with the aid of one whose recollection is more distinct than mine have made out the following enumeration of the houses in Pittsburgh about the time mentioned."
Mr. Craig wrote this in 1852. He was born in Bouquet's block house in 1786, and hence at the age of 10 his memory would be good, and 55 years later would not be seriously impaired. Mr. Craig totals 102 houses. Of these, 10 were on Market street and 10 on Front street (now First avenue), 18 on Water street, nine on Second street (now avenue west of Market street) and six east of that street; seven on Wood street, nine on Fourth street (now avenue, east of Market street) and two west of Market; one only on Third street (avenue) and seven on Ferry street.
Fifth street (now avenue) had "Battle Row" between Wood and Smithfield and two or three more, and three west of Wood street. There were three houses on Penn street (now avenue, east of Fort Pitt), two on Liberty and three in the Diamond; one on Marbury street (Boquet's old Redoubt) and in Fort Pitt four or five, Craig concludes.
Craig allows eight persons to a house, which makes the population "a little over 800." H. Niles, in his Register (Vol. 30), states, without giving his authority, that Pittsburgh had 36 log houses in 1786 one stone, one frame house and five small stores. Craig comments that the detail and particularity of statement seem to give it some credibility.
In 1800 the United States census gave Pittsburgh 1,565 inhabitants and from the Gazette list this shows an increase of only 170 in the four years from 1796. There was a more rapid growth in the next decade, for in 1810 the increase was 3,203. The growth from 816, Craig's estimate, in 1796, to 1,565, the 1800 census enumeration (to be taken as absolutely correct) shows an increase of 749 and nearly double, which looks reasonable.
From the study of these statistics we must particularly admire the brand of assessors we had then. They found, according to Craig, nearly double the number of people there really was. Of course, Mr. Scull, the editor of the Gazette, was not to blame. He, as an editor, postmaster, publisher, job printer, etc., was a busy man and could not stop to count the people. There is no doubt he accepted the item as turned in by the assessors. He had no reason to go back of the returns. But Mr. Craig, from his own long experience as an editor, might have suggested another reason for the Gazette's figures as turned in by the assessors. They may have been the result of a typographical error, or even a clerical error.
It is clear that, although created a borough in 1794, Pittsburgh was not much of a town, and at the time (1796) the assessors' figures were published, 12 years had elapsed from the date of Col. Wood's [sic] survey of Pittsburgh. It is clear also from Craig's enumeration where the majority of the people dwelt: on Market, Water, Front, Second, Ferry and Wood streets. Sixty-seven houses of Craig's total were on these streets. His memory extended also to the occupants and owners, many of whom he mentioned by their first names.
Mr. Craig next describes the appearance of the town in detail. Market street seemed to become the main business street by reason of its central location and despite its narrowness. Wood street at Water was impassable when the river was moderately high on account of the "gut" or deep gulley there. Soon after the borough was incorporated a stone bridge was built across this at Front street, now First avenue.
The wharf was nothing but a rugged, irregular bank, the width varying from Wood's [sic] lots to the break of the bank. At Market street this distance was between 50 and 60 feet. But there was a deep gulley there also, that had been worn in the bank. A wagon could scarcely pass along. At the mouth of Chancery lane there was another chasm in the bank, and Craig states that a horse could not pass between the post at the corner lot and the steep bank.
At Ferry street there was a similar difficulty, and here it required careful driving also. At "Redout" alley, now Blockhouse way, there was a steep and stony descent to the level of the covered archway which led from Front street, just below Redoubt alley, into the Monongahela River.
A pond extended along the south side of Liberty street from Diamond alley to Fourth street (now avenue), and from this pond a deep ditch led the water into the archway at Front street. Craig could never learn by whom this archway was built. It was no trifling work. The sides, which were about four feet in height, and the top were of hard burnt bricks and the bottom of flag stones. Craig and his boy companions often passed through this archway. He speculates that there must have been a gulley extending up from the river below Redoubt alley; and infers that when Col. Grant, who built the redoubt which stood on the river bank just above that gulley, he probably had the archway (or culvert, it may be termed) constructed to facilitate the communication between his redoubt and Fort Pitt. How, it is not exactly clear. Evidently the archway was built for a purpose. It fulfilled that purpose in perilous days. Grant's redoubt, spelled always as Bouquet's "Redoubt," must not be confounded with the latter. Grant was undoubtedly the British major who came here in advance of Forbes and who was defeated on Grant's Hill in September two months before Forbes came in 1758.
The name Blockhouse way, a change from Redoubt alley, is not a desirable one. We have but one block house now, Bouquet's, at the foot of Penn avenue, and Blockhouse way does not lead to it or near it. When Woods surveyed the town with Grant's blockhouse or redoubt still standing, "Redoubt" alley, as then spelled, was a proper designation for the little thoroughfare. Now, as Blockhouse way, it is a misnomer and misleading. Better had it been left Redoubt alley.
Craig remembers that Water street, gradually narrowing, was closed at West street by a fence extending to the foot of the bank, so that persons going to Jones' Ferry from any place on Water street had either to climb the steep bank and go along the beach or else turn up from Water to Front street and go along Front to Liberty street and thence to the ferry at the foot of Liberty street. An examination of the map of Pittsburgh made in 1795 with reference to Craig's enumeration of the houses in the town in 1796 shows that the map maker has furnished reference marks to 46 houses, but under Fort Pitt and Fort Fayette enumerates 10 more, viz: The barracks, the commandant's house, the storehouse, storehouse for flour and magazine at Pitt, and the block house, two stories, six-sided; the magazine, the officers' quarters of brick, two stories; the barracks, two stories of hewn logs, and the guard house at Fayette.
Counting the houses as drawn on the map of 1795, noting several not numbered, we find 93 houses indicated, which, counting those in the forts, tallies closely with Craig's list.
There are other buildings than dwellings marked on the map; Gen. Wayne's old stables left standing at the mouth of Sukes Run, about the site of the Baltimore and Ohio freight depot; the First Presbyterian Church, a log structure at Wood and Virgin alley (now Oliver avenue); a boat yard, between Short street and Redoubt alley on Water street; the market house; the jail; Samuel Sample's tavern at Water and Ferry streets, where Washington stopped in 1770, and Irwin's Hall at the Diamond and Market street, where the first courts of Allegheny county were held. All the forts—the two Pitts and Fayette—are designated, the Second Fort Pitt especially in a complete ground plan.
A large sand bar lay in the middle of the Monongahela, extending from Sukes Run to Fort Pitt and on most of the bar a crop of buckwheat was grown in 1795. Between Penn street and the Allegheny River, extending from Marbury street, later Third, to Barker's alley, above St. Clair, now Federal street, were remains of the orchards known as the King's Orchards in colonial days. One house stood on the north side of Penn street (now avenue) above Pitt street, now Stanwix.
Jean Marie's house on Fourth street (now avenue), above Cherry alley, was the most southerly residence. Across Grant street, diagonally facing the Fourth street road, was Senator Ross' home. At Irwin street, later Seventh street and Liberty, were the mansion and grounds of Dr. Nathaniel Bedford. There was an orchard around the middle ferry house at Wood and Water streets. Judge Alexander Addison's dwelling stood alone at the corner of Smithfield and Second, and at Smithfield and Fourth was the next house, on the edge of Hogg's Pond, in a small triangular plot formed by the street and the pond. The owner's name is not given—doubtless it was only a log cabin.
The two widows Butler, Mrs. Gen. Richard and Mrs. Col. William, lived at Penn and Marbury streets. The log church was away up town. And doubtless the walking was bad at times, for we are told religion languished for some years.
Such is a brief reveiew [sic] of the extent and character of the town of Pittsburgh prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century. When Market street began to take on business aspect, Pittsburgh really began to grow, and it is well to remember that in 1816, when the city was chartered, its boundaries were identically the same as those of the borough created in 1794; in fact, the ground covered by Col. Wood's [sic] survey of 1784 with the areas of the forts added. The boundaries of the town and city were the rivers, Grant street and Washington street, which first extended from Liberty to the Allegheny river. Cut up with sluices, gulleys, ponds and with the precipitous Grant's Hill on the southern edge the town could grow only in the flat region towards the Point, and though Market, Ferry and the first three cross streets were made only 40 feet in width, it will be noted that they show the earliest growth, keeping pace with Water street.
In 1796 Mr. Craig counts the 10 houses on Market street from Fourth street to Water, thus: The old jail at the corner of Fourth; John Irwin's, Molly Murphy's, a tavern; Brady's smith shop on the corner of Third; Horner's, corner of Second; Judge H. H. Brackenridge's, Dr. Peter Mowry's, Samuel Ewalt's at Water street, and Christy's, also at Water Street, the latter not mentioned on the map of 1795.
On Wood street the same year Mr. Craig remembers the two Wilkinses, John, Sr. and Jr., Henderson, who owned the middle ferry, Sturgeon's, Palmer's log house and Rody McKinney's.
On Ferry street he enumerates Devereaux Smith's, Diehl's, Frank's, Charles Richard's, Willock's and two other log houses. Richards, a colored man, kept a tavern on the corner of Second street, "a good tavern," the reference note on the map tells us.
For Front street, now First avenue, Mr. Craig's list runs as follows: Ward's, M. Adams', George Adams', Hanlon's stone house; Larwill's, Cooper's, Watson's log tavern and Delaney's.
Watson's Tavern was on the southeast corner of Front and Market streets, doubtless facing Front. It was a noted place in its day.
On Second street (avenue), east of Market street, were six dwellings, the uppermost Judge Addison's. On Second, west of Market, were nine houses, which Mr. Craig lists thus: "Fox Gibson's, Chamber's, Gen. Gibson's (the first brick house), Turnbull's storehouse, McLaughlin's, "Jinny Lang's, Ben Askin's and Maj. Irwin's. Ben Richards, a colored man, was the only dweller on Third street (avenue), as Craig remembers, and at the corner of Chancery lane. None of these houses but Richards' are noted by a reference line on the map of 1795.
Water street, with 18 houses, claims attention as the main street, such as it was, and Craig begins with Col. Pressly Neville's, then McIntyre's, John Scull's, where the Pittsburgh Gazette was printed; Wilmer's, Duncan's, J. Irwin's, John Ormsby's, Samuel Sample's, John Neville's, Isaac Craig's, Grant's redoubt, Abraham Kirkpatrick's, Gen. O'Hara's, Adamson Tannehill's, Morrow's, Green Tree Tavern, Henderson's Ferry House, Senator Ross' home before he moved to the Fourth street road, and Peter Andrian's, sometimes spelled Andrian.
Craig's list runs toward Grant street, Ross and Audrain, were above Smithfield street, the ferry house, Green Tree tavern and Tannehill's between Wood and Smithfield streets; Ewalt's at Market street, the upper corner; John Ormsby's, between Chancery lane and Ferry street; Sample's tavern, next door; John Neville's and Maj. Craig's in the next block west; Grant's redoubt, on the line of the present Water street, directly in front of Craig's; Kirkpatrick's and O'Hara's were between Short and West street. Pressly Neville's is marked at the corner of Market street, across from Ewalt's. This is especially prominent on the plan of Col. Campbell, the old military plan of Pittsburgh.
John Scull's home on the map of 1795 is marked at Market and Front streets, the northeast corner. Craig remembers Scull's house as still on Water street that year and as Craig then lived within a few doors and knew John Scull well, in after years becoming editor and proprietor of the Gazette, we must accept Craig's testimony, which can be verified easily by reference to the Gazette files.
Then, too, on the map of 1795 the first postoffice is given at Front street (First avenue) and "Redout" alley, G. Adams, postmaster. John Scull, by the directory of 1815, was living at the northwest corner of Market and Front streets. We learn from the history of the Pittsburgh postoffice that it was moved in 1797 from Scull's on Water street, where it had remained from the time it was opened in 1787, to a substantial log house on Front street near Ferry street. The map of 1795 shows this located as noted. The map man, it seems, moved the office two years too soon. The Gazette office, Scull's print shop, and the postoffice were all in the same log structure on Water street.
In the early days of Pittsburgh the taverns were all near the water front except the Black Bear, which stood until within recent years on what is now Masters Way, leading from Diamond to Fifth avenue. Mr. Craig mentions also Molly Murphy's a famous place, the Green Tree Tavern, Charley Richards' and Samuel Sample's. No doubt he remembered all these places in his boyhood and as he lived until 1863, saw them disappear.
In the wagoning days the necessity for other and greater taverns came and they gradually moved uptown. Then the canal came and more public houses became necessary.
Russell Errett, in his "Chapters of Pittsburgh History" in the volume issued by A. Warner & Co., in 1889, dwells on this phase of business growth and its relation to business in general and speculates on the connection that can be made with Col. Wood's [sic] survey when local traffic is given consideration.
Mr. Errett relates that the "great caravansaries" for the Conestoga wagons were on Liberty, Fifth and the streets belong [sic] Fifth avenue. Very few now can recollect them, but some traces were still to be found even after the canal was opened. There was one at Liberty and Seventh avenues, the "Spread Eagle Tavern;" and one at the corner of Wood and Fifth, and further up Fifth—near Smithfield, nearly opposite the postoffice, there was a great arch under which the wagons used to drive, and a high courtyard around which frame dwellings were erected. This courtyard was an old wagon yard and the houses around it had been originally stables or a part of the tavern buildings.
Certain it is that tavern keeping of that kind was a huge business up to 1830, and the proprietors (the Penns) must be supposed to have had sense enough to see that traffic with the East and West would concentrate here so largely as to make special provision for it necessary. Could they have foreseen the days of railroads and telegraphs and the change they would work in the methods of business, they would have made the lots on Front street outfront on Market, Wood, Smithfield and Grant, but who of the present generation would have acted differently had they lived in their times and circumstances?"
These words were written about 1888. Mr. Errett during almost the whole of his newspaper career was an editorial writer, fond of speculation, one can infer. The truth is the Penns cared very little, so they sold their land. They left this solely to Tench Francis, their agent. Francis left it with Woods and Vickroy and whatever they did was to be. The sub-divisions that came naturally gave frontages on the main streets, Wood, Grant, etc. Market stayed narrow and has never been changed. Yet it was the first great business street of the town.
The story of that business growth is an interesting one, too, but must be deferred. Thomas Vickroy in his deposition referred to last week, gave us valuable history.
